


And So It Goes

by Franavu



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: AU after Brothers in Arms, Gen, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 07:18:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franavu/pseuds/Franavu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: Mark becomes a torch singer at a Beta Colony nightclub.</p><p>Pretty much as it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And So It Goes

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [ana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ana/pseuds/ana) in the [Bujold_Ficathon_2013](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Bujold_Ficathon_2013) collection. 



> **Prompt:**  
>  Mark becomes a torch singer at a Beta Colony nightclub. Set after Brothers in Arms.
> 
> Lyrics by Billy Joel

It's the penultimate day of the Prime Ministers diplomatic visit to Beta and Simon finally has some time to himself. The only way the circus could be bigger would have been a full imperial visit with all the trimmings. Gregor had been quietly smug he would not have to deal with Betans who would keep asking when Barrayar would finally modernize and whether it wasn't time to change to a proper democracy. He loves Cordelia, really, but she at least has some sense of reality and knowledge of the situation on Barrayar. Simon wouldn't have been here himself, but Gregor requested and required and told him that ImpSec should be able to run itself even without him, damn the boy.

So now he's here on Beta and he managed to escape for an evening. Aral and Cordelia are bedded down for an early breakfast meeting tomorrow and he has nowhere he needs to be tonight and a yen to get pleasantly buzzed. The one advantage of Beta colonies general incompetence in the intelligence field is that he can easily avoid their agents. He tells his security team to settle in a nearby pub, while he decides to take a look at a nightclub which his chip tells him has good reviews in one of the local papers he had glanced at that morning. A secondary objective is to see whether this club would make a good meeting point for his agents in this sector, he might as well get something out of this visit.

He enters the half-full club and takes a seat at a table in a back-corner. The club is pleasantly dim, but still remarkably clean. A piano stands on the stage in the front and the pianist seems to be getting ready to play. A server brings Simon his beer and he settles in for a quiet evening. The music starts up, it's a melancholic old-fashioned tune that leaves Simon staring into his glass. Then a voice begins to sing.

> In every heart there is a room  
>  A sanctuary safe and strong  
>  To heal the wounds from lovers past  
>  Until a new one comes along  
> 

And Simon almost spits his beer all over the table, because that voice is familiar. And indeed when he looks up he stares at the face of his craziest subordinate. But that's can't be right and he checks his chip, Miles is nowhere close to Beta, and since his last contact he can't possibly have made it here.

> I spoke to you in cautious tones  
>  You answered me with no pretence  
>  And still I feel I said too much  
>  My silence is my self defence  
> 

The singer is looking at the piano and that face is subtly wrong compared to the memory on his chip, lines slightly different, expression not quite familiar. Then it clicks, the Jacksonian clone, it better be the Jacksonian clone, the Nexus is barely big enough for one Miles, more than one clone would be a nightmare.

> And every time I've held a rose  
>  It seems I only felt the thorns  
>  And so it goes, and so it goes  
>  And so will you soon I suppose  
> 

The clone's voice is good though and there is plenty of emotion in his voice. Simon supposes he should call him Mark, as that is what the report said Miles named him. His face is sad, and the lyrics seem strangely apt.

> But if my silence made you leave  
>  Then that would be my worst mistake  
>  So I will share this room with you  
>  And you can have this heart to break  
> 

For once Simon is unsure what to do. The clone...Mark is a security risk, but that seems far away in this dim club; for this singer with the sad voice and haunted eyes. Simon had worried when he couldn't find Mark after Miles' adventure on old Earth; and for once it seems he was wrong to worry. There is little risk to Barrayar in a singer in a Betan bar.

> And this is why my eyes are closed  
>  It's just as well for all I've seen  
>  And so it goes, and so it goes  
>  And you're the only one who knows  
> 

It is strange, Miles can't carry a tune in a bucket, but Mark's voice is strong and pure. He has already started to separate himself from Miles in Simon's mind. To see this young man as an individual and not as an extension of Miles or an unfortunate accident caused by Komarran hatred and Jacksonian greed.

> So I would choose to be with you  
>  That's if the choice were mine to make  
>  But you can make decisions too  
>  And you can have this heart to break  
> 

And with that Simon makes a decision. He hasn't been seen yet, so he will remain in this dark corner and speak quietly into his wristcom. And tonight he will smuggle the Prime Minister of Barrayar and his wife out of the embassy to hear their son sing in this dim Betan club.

> And so it goes, and so it goes  
>  And you're the only one who knows  
> 


End file.
